The positioning of a magnet or magnets through a hole in a surface and into a subsurface region can be a difficult and often time consuming task if it is necessary to position the magnet with some degree of accuracy. Conventionally, magnets have often been positioned into subsurface regions by hand since few devices have previously been known for use in accurately positioning a magnet or magnets through a hole into a subsurface region. In positioning of a magnet by hand, the precision and the accuracy of the position of the magnet cannot be ensured. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a magnet positioning apparatus which is simple in design and construction, yet which allows quick, easy and precise positioning a magnet or magnets through a hole in a surface and into a subsurface region thereof so that a top surface of the magnet is at a predetermined angle to and a predetermined distance from that portion of the surface which is adjacent to the hole in which the magnet is to be positioned.
Accurate magnet positioning is of concern, for example, in the field of cabinets where the cabinet hardware is held to the outer surface of the cabinet via a magnet embedded beneath the outer surface of the cabinet.
Intelligent vehicle highway systems is another field where the accurate positioning of a magnet or magnets is required. An objective of intelligent vehicle highway systems is to produce a combination of vehicles and highways which are highly automated so that the vehicle and the highway cooperate to perform more of the driving tasks which are now performed by the human being driving the vehicle. More particularly, one facet of intelligent vehicle highway systems is to allow the highway and the vehicle to do the steering of the vehicle. One way of accomplishing allowing the highway and the vehicle to steer the vehicle involves the use of a magnet or magnets which have been positioned through holes drilled in a road surface and into subsurface regions beneath the surface of the roadway. The magnet is positioned through the hole in the road surface and into the subsurface region so that a magnet is located at predetermined intervals from an adjacent magnet and so as to be at the center of a lane of a roadway. In this way, a vehicle having magnetometers mounted on a front end thereof may be steered by detecting a magnetic field from the magnet or magnets positioned through the hole in the road surface and into the subsurface region beneath the road surface in the center of a lane of the roadway.
Thus, the problem of precisely positioning a magnet or magnets through a hole in a road surface and into a subsurface region beneath the road surface requires that the magnet or magnets be positioned through the hole in the road surface and into the subsurface region therebeneath so that a top surface of the magnet is at a predetermined angle to and a predetermined distance from the road surface adjacent to the hole for proper detection of the magnetic field generated by the magnet or magnets in order to be able to drive the vehicle straight without any yaw or swaying. Conventional means of positioning such magnets are time consuming and not always accurate. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a magnet positioning apparatus which is of simple construction and which can easily, quickly and precisely position at least one magnet through a hole in a surface and into a subsurface region therebelow so that the top surface of the magnet is at a predetermined angle to and a predetermined distance from the surface adjacent to the hole in which the magnet is positioned for proper detection of the magnetic field generated by the magnet or magnets.